“Hey, I want to introduce you to a couple of good friends of mine who live here.” I stand and shake their hands. “Thanks for waiting, guys.”
“No worries. Any excuse not to study works for me,” Damien jokes.
“These are some of the newest guards—Liam Fitzpatrick, Darwin Caddel, and Sean Parker, also known as Sodie.” I introduced Sodie by his real name, instead of the false one he supplied on his application. “Meet Damien and Christian Knight.”
Damien is taller, broader, and more muscular, while Christian is slimmer with a narrower face. They both have reddish-brown hair and brown eyes, but Damien’s eyes are much lighter in color. For twins, they are easy to tell apart, unlike the Langhlan twins, whom I sometimes still confuse for one another.
Everyone gathers around our table. Damien pulls over a couple of chairs for him and his brother.
“Don’t let your dad find out you’re skipping study time because of me. He’ll hand me my ass.”
Christian rolls his eyes. “Yeah, right. You’re the prodigal son.”
“Well, you can pack those rolling eyes away. I’m kind of on his shit list right now,” I mutter into my beer.
“We heard. He’ll get over it,” Damien assures me, taking a swig of his own beer.
“It will take a while, I’m sure.”
Damien and Christian glance at each other. “Better you than us for a change.” Christian grins.
“That’s for sure.” Damien chuckles.
The new guards’ faces all sport blank stares. I lean forward. “If you haven’t figured it out, they’re talking about their dad, Anders.” The twins’ grins widen.
Sodie pales. I study the physical similarities in their features. They definitelylookrelated.
“Holy crap, Sodie! They look just like you. Or do you look like them? Who is older—you or them?”
The twins stop smiling and look at each other again before turning back to me.
“Way to be subtle, bro,” Liam teases.
“What? I don’t get it. What did I miss?” Darwin says, looking around the table.
“You recruited him? You chose him?” Sodie points his thumb in Darwin's direction.
“Yeah, I did, but I’m not the one who trained him. You go complain to their father. He’s the one in charge.” I wait another moment before finally explaining, “Damien, Christian, Sodie is your mother’s brother. We literally just found out about an hour ago. Sodie, meet your nephews.”
He stares at the twins. Silence fills the air as they assess each other.
“You look like my dad, when he was about your age, I mean, from the pictures I’ve seen,” Sodie says to Christian. “Damien, you resemble my Uncle Buddy, my dad’s brother—uh, your grandfather’s brother. Fuck, sorry...” Sodie rubs his eyes.
“Maybe we should let these three get to know each other,” Darwin implores—the first sensible thing out of his mouth all night.
“You two okay if I go?” I ask.
Christian smiles. “Yeah. We have a bunch of questions about our mom, and I’m sure Sodie must have some for us.”
Liam leans into Sodie. “You good?”
Sodie shakes his head, blinking away the tears. “Is it alright if Liam stays?” he asks the twins.
“Sure. He’s not related to us, is he? Cause he don’t look nothing like us,” Damien cracks with a mischievous smile. Sodie and Liam laugh.
“Nah. He’s a good friend of mine and your sister’s.”
Darwin, thinking the invite also pertains to him, starts to sit his ass back down, but I grab him by the arm. “No.”
